Trapper's Wounds
by Frodo's sister
Summary: Hawkeye keeps vigil at Trapper's side while Trapper is unconscious from his wounds. No slash, drunkenness, dirty jokes, bad language, etc. Constructive criticism instead of flames please. A little religion in chapter two.
1. Chapter 1

Trapper's Wounds

 **Disclaimer** : I don't own M*A*S*H. They are owned by Richard Hooker and those who made it into a television show.

 **Warning** : I am not a doctor, and I don't know anything about being one. The surgery proceedure is fictional. Possible character death.

 **Authors Note** : **Important** Everything in the conversation Hawkeye has while Trapper lies unconscious is clean, no dirty jokes, drunkenness or anything else. It may be a bit out of character, but I am a catholic and I don't want to write things that are against my beliefs. Besides not all the fun that they had was sinful. If you want to consider this AU that is ok.

All of the cots in the post op were filled with patients either sitting up, or sleeping or just lying down. Some of them had Ivies and other tubes stuck inside of them, but others did not, and many of them were covered with bandages and gauze around their arms, chests, heads, or legs.

The place was filled with activity because some of the orderlies were busy running around and taking care of things. Two of them were changing sheets of some of the patients. They rolled the patient very carefully to one side to prevent them from waking up if they were sleeping and folded the sheet on the side that the patient wasn't on. Then they moved the patient to the other side where there was no sheet and did the same. When they were finished they picked up the sheets and carried them to the bin just outside the post op, and there were two others who put clean sheets freshly washed and dried on the cots. They did that to make the patients more comfortable. There were some enlisted men and off duty nurses visiting the patients. Radar was talking with a young man who looked to be no more than 19 about their home towns. There were two nurses on duty. One of them was sitting down at the desk doing paperwork while the other was walking around checking the ivy's and vital signs of the patients.

While all that was going on Hawkeye was sitting on a chair facing a patient with a worried look on his face. This patient had an ivy tube stuck in his left arm and there was another going through his mouth. He had curly brown hair and eyes that shown like emeralds if they were opened. His right arm and chest was covered with gauze and his face was so pale that it almost looked snow white. Hawkeye was holding the patient's hand to comfort him, and let him know he was there. His heart was filled with worry and fear for the patient because although he was operated on for more than twelve hours he had yet to wake up. The patient's name is Trapper John Macintyre.

A few days ago Trapper was sent to help another M*A*S*H unit because they were in need of assistance. On their way back bombs were being exploded around their jeep. One of them exploded so close that it killed the driver and seriously injured Trapper. The sharp pieces of shrapnel cut through his right arm and chest and he felt a searing pain before he fell unconscious. Luckily the shelling stopped a few second afterwards and the soldier who came by was an American. He was not one of the aids but he did what he could to take care of the wounds. He used his shirt to try to stop the bleeding and covered his deeply wounded chest and arm, and then he went to look for an aid. He found him a few minutes later and saw him taking care of another wounded man and called him over to where Trapper was lying down and proceeded to care for his wounds even more. He cleaned his wounds with some water, and sterilized them with some kind of medicine to prevent infections and bind them tightly with lots of gauze but not too tightly so that blood could continue to flow through the veins and arteries. And put him on the cot where he and another man carried him over to one of the cots that was attached to the bottom of a chopper. The other cot had the other patient that he looked at and prepared to be sent to the M*A*S*H unit before he prepared Trapper. As soon as he closed the lid he waved to the chopper pilot as a signal for the pilot to take off. The engine began to make a loud humming noise and the blade on top of the chopper was spinning around very fast and a few second later the chopper began to lift off towards the sky.

Hawkeye's mind flashed back to when he was in OR operating on patients. He was just finished with this patient when an orderly came in and said, "we have two more patients coming in and both are seriously wounded.

"Send one to my table," Hawkeye and Henry said at the same time.

So the orderlies sent two patients one to Henry who began to work on him immediately and the other to Hawkeye. Hawkeye looked at the man's right arm and chest that had cuts and large wounds both were covered in blood. He looked at his face and when he saw that it was Trapper his insides immediately were filled with sorrow and nervousness because they were life threatening, but he kept himself composed because he needed to work on him right away.

After the Nurse amnestied him, he asked her to give him a scalpel and she handed it to him. He began to cut through his chest to get to the arteries and the organs, and began to work in removing the shrapnel and repairing them. He was working on his chest first because it was more seriously wounded than his arm.

"Forceps, sponge, suction," he called to the nurse who was assisting him, and she handed each of the instruments that he asked from her. "More suction, nurse, I can't see. Clamp!"

"No pulse captain, we are losing him."

"No we are not," he said with anger in his voice and determination. He began to breathe into Trapper's mouth to fill his lunges with air and then he pushed his chest hard to get his heart started and a few seconds later he succeeded. He continued to work on Trapper and when he began to hemorrhage he asked for and worked on Trapper in a frantic pace to stop the bleeding before Trapper died. When he stopped he sighed in relief and began to sew Trapper's chest and then began to work on his arm. He was glad that he defeated the enemy.

His mind returned to the present and he continued to sit there keeping vigil at Trapper's bed side for the last three hours. He would have came by earlier but when the OR sessions were done he walked straight to his tent and fell immediately into a deep sleep as soon as he landed on his cot.

At that moment Henry walked into post op and straight towards Trapper intending to checkup on him and relieve Hawkeye for a while. When he got there he touched Hawkeye's shoulders

"So how is he doing?"

"Not so good, Henry. His vital signs are not strong and the nurse told me that he has not waken up even once since he came here, and I am afraid that I might lose him."

Henry gave Hawkeye a few words of comfort and encouragement, "try not to worry so much, Trapper is strong and he has a lot of fight in him."

"I hope you are right, Henry," Hawkeye said with sadness and doubt in his voice.

Henry noticed bags under Hawkeye's eyes and other signs of fatigue and hunger. "Why don't you take a break. Go to the mess tent and get yourself a bite to eat and I will watch over him for a while."

"Not thank you," said Hawkeye. "I can't leave him in the condition unless I am needed in OR."

"I will get you some food then," said Henry.

"Bring an extra cover over here to incase I fall asleep although I will try not to," Hawkeye added.

"Will do," said Henry who squeezed Hawkeye's shoulder before he left.

Hawkeye continued to sit there holding Trappers hand while Trapper continued to lie still on the bed.

Hawkeye continued to look at Trapper while holding his hand. He was so absorbed in his worry for his friend that he was oblivious to everything else that was going on around him. His fear of losing his friend to the enemy was getting worse and worse. He ached for Trapper to wake up, but Trapper remained unconscious.

He began to talk to Trapper to comfort his friend and himself.

"Please wake up Trapper; I need you and so do a lot of other people including your wife and children, friends, and the patients. Do you remember all those jokes we played on Frank? There was a time when we put cracked eggs inside his helmet and he put it on his head. We laughed so hard when we saw the egg running down his hair and face. There was also a time when we put lots of cyan into his food, and when he tasted it. He immediately got up and yelled, "my mouth is on fire; water, I need water." He was running around frantically. Finally he ran outside and put his head in the water filled trough and drank his fill. We also had fun playing tricks on others. One time we filled Henry's boots with soot, and another time when we hid Radar's teddy bear. He looked for it for over an hour panicking before he finally found it underneath his cot. It was there the whole time, and it would have been the first place he would have looked for it, but he knew us too well so he began to look for it elsewhere. We also had fun dressing up like gorillas."

Hawkeye paused for a few seconds before he resumed talking.

"I need you Trapper," Hawkeye said while his eyes were beginning to be filled with water. He did not permit them to fall on his face. "You are the staff that I can lean on when this terrible place gets to be too much for me at times, and you held me back and kept me from beating up Frank. I lost my mother, and it hurt so much, I also lost my best friend from my home town and I am still affected by it. Now I'm going to lose you, and I can hardly bare it. Please wake up, I care so much about you, you are like the "brother" I never had.

All of a sudden Trapper began to breathe loudly and rapidly while his chest was moving up and down to the point where he was almost bouncing on his bed. Hawkeye looked at him with alarm in his face and immediately shouted, "Nurse Kellye!"

Nurse Kellye ran to him immediately. "I'm here, Hawkeye," she said breathlessly.

"I need you to monitor his life signs while I try to stabilize him."

"You two," he said to the two orderlies who were nearby. "Hold him down while I work on him."

One orderly went to the opposite sides of Trapper and held him down, one at his head the other at his legs while Hawkeye used some kind of medicine to help stabilize him.

"IT'S NOT WORKING!"

"SOMEBODY GET A GURNEY OVER HERE PROMPLY"

Two of the men left the post op and returned with a gurney a few seconds later while the two orderlies who were holding him down before lifted him up and placed him on it, and wheeled him out of the post op. The others who were in the post op were looking on with wide eyes and opened mouths.

Radar who was alarmed by what was happening to Trapper ran towards Hawkeye. "Do you need me for anything?"

"Yes, find Father Mulcahy and tell him to meet us in OR promptly," Hawkeye said with frustration in his voice.

Radar left the post op to look for Father Mulcahy, and Hawkeye ran to OR to begin getting ready for surgery.

To be continued.


	2. Chapter 2

Trapper's Wounds

Disclaimer, Author's Note, Warning, See chapter One

While Hawkeye ws busy operating on Trapper's chest a look of fear and determination showed in his eyes. He was fearful that Trapper might die because there was almost 100% chance of it, and he was determined to beat the enemy because he loved Trapper like a brother and he was using all of his efforts to prevent that. Nurse Kelly was standing by monitoring his life signs which were unfortunately weak and handing out whatever medical instruments Hawkeye was asking her for. At this moment he was using forceps to keep the arteries away from the organ and the medical sizers to cut away the infected part.

"Sponge," he said to the nurse.

Nurse Kelly handed him a few sponges and Hawkeye packed them inside Trapper to prevent bleeding.

"More suction, Nurse Kellye; I can't see."

She added more suction.

There was another nurse kneeling down and squeezing the air bag or whatever bag it is at the right side of Trapper's bed.

Hawkeye pulled out a shrapnel that he missed and placed it on the table. It was tiny, but it looked bloody.

At that moment Father Mulcahy arrived at Or and looked at Trapper with worry in his face.

"How is he doing?" Hawkeye.

"Not so good," Hawkeye answered with sadness in his voice. He had tears in his eyes but he refused to break down because he needed all of his wits if his to save the life of his best friend.

"Do you need me to step in now?" Father Mulcahy asked hoping that it would not be necessary at all."

"Not yet," Hawkeye answered with the same tone of voice.

Father Mulcahy continued to look at Trapper and the medical staff working on him, and began to pray.

Dear Lord, please don't take Trapper away from us; he is a great doctor and many patients are counting on him, he is also important to many of us especially Hawkeye, his best friend, and his family who will be heart broken if he doesn't make it. I trust whatever decision you make to be the best for us, but if you take him away it will be hard on us. Please use Hawkeye's hands that you can save the life of one we love so much through him. "Lord…"

Blood began to gush out of Trapper's wound and Hawkeye was working at lightening speed to stop the bleeding. He was also rapidly asking Nurse Kelley for the instruments and she was handing them at the same speed he was asking.

"Forcepts, scapel, sponge, more sponge, another forcept, clamp, smaller clamp sponge, more sponge, suction."

"We're losing him?" the other nurse said. She was now monitoring his life signs while Nurse Kelleye was handing Hawkeye the medical instruments.

"Father Mulcahy, we need you now."

Father Mulcahy put his stole on and was about to minister the last rites to Trapper when all of a sudden he stopped bleeding and his vital signs were rapidly getting better. Hawkeye noticed that lots of arteries was already repaired and what amazed him was that it wasn't him who repaired half of them. There was no question that this was a miracle from God. Because he knew he couldn't repair this many arteries this fast by himself, and he could not stop the bleeding.

"He's stabalizing, doctor," the other nurse said.

"Let's take the sponges out and close him up," said Hawkeye who sighed in relief.

"Thank God," said Father Mulcahy."

Several hours later Trapper was sitting up on his cot playing gin with Hawkeye. Trapper thought for a minute and then dropped his card onto the discard pile and picked up a new one. He placed it next to the last two in his hands.

"It's your turn Hawkeye."

Hawkeye was looking at his deck in his hand and then at the discard pile and regular pile. A few seconds later he dropped his card on the discard pile and picked up another from the regular pile and placed it into the middle of his hand.

"Thank you," Trapper said with a smug look at his face.

"What do you mean thank you?" Hawkeye asked.

When he saw Trapper's smug expression he realized his mistake. A second later Trapper picked up the card in the discard pile and then placed a card from his hand onto it. When he was finished, he placed his cards faced up on the table and said, "Gin," with a smug tone in his voice.

"Oh, come on!" Hawkeye said with annoyance while he slammed his cards on the table. "I just had one more to go."

"Well that is six times in a row that I beat you. Should I try the seventh?"

At that moment Father Mulcahy entered post op to check on Trapper and when he saw that he was smiling and that his eyes were bright it warmed his heart.

"I came here to check up on you, and it seems that you are in good spirits." He said to Trapper.

"I won six games in a row," Trapper said smugly.

"Do you have to rub it in?" Hawkeye said with annoyance in his tone of voice.

Father Mulcahy chided him. "Now Hawkeye, it is only a game."

"I suppose you are right," Hawkeye sighed. A second later a broad smile filled his face. "Besides, I really beat him in poker last week."

"Do you have to remind me of that?" Trapper complained.

"I'm glad you're feeling better, Trapper," Father Mulcahy said trying to change the subject.

"I'm feeling a lot better; I'm also happy to be alive, Thanks to Hawkeye." Then he looked directly into Hawkeye's eyes and said to him. "If it weren't for you I would probably be on my home in a box."

"Trapper, I don't deserve most of the credit," Hawkeye said.

Trapper looked at him with wide eyes and an open mouth. "But you are the only doctor who worked on me and the nurses told me you did a fine job of it."

"I did a fine job of it, but if it weren't for God you wouldn't be alive right now. There was too much damage inside of you for me to be able to work efficiently and to make things worse you were bleeding uncontrollably despite the sponges and other instruments I have been using to control it. We were losing you, but all of a sudden your vital signs began to get better, and I saw that some of the repair work wasn't done me. I am a doctor, an excellent one in fact, but I can only do so much."

"Yes, it was a Miracle, Thank God," Father Mulcahy agreed.

"I'm going to my tent and practice my boxing; I'll see you guys later," Father Mulcahy said.

"Thanks for coming around Father," Trapper said.

"Now what game should we play now?" Trapper asked.

"How about checkers?"

Two hours later.

"That's three in a row," Trapper said happily. "This is definitely my lucky day.

Hawkeye frowned.

"I noticed something, Trapper," Hawkeye said while he began to set up the board again. He was determined to win a game.

"There haven't been any casualties here for more than 24 hours," Hawkeye said with a smile on his face. "And I hope that there will be no more for a while."

"I hope there would be no more for a least a week."

"You're pushing it Trapper, but it is nice thought. It would be nice if we can spend a few more hours…"

A second later the sound coming from the words came from the PA that Hawkeye hated. "Incoming wounded! Incoming wounded! All personnel report to OR on the double!"

"Darn!" Hawkeye yelled while he slammed his fist into the checkered board causing the pieces to fly all over the place.

The End.


End file.
